| Windows Azure Storage : Account Operations |
| The storage account provides an entry point to the Queue service via the Queue service endpoint URI. At the account level of the hierarchy, the Queue service supports only one operation: List Queues. |
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| Windows 7 : Removing an Icon from Control Panel |
| You can gain a bit more control over the Control Panel by configuring it not to display icons that you don’t ever use or that aren’t applicable to your system. This is done with group policies |
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| Windows 7 : Showing Only Specified Control Panel Icons |
| Disabling a few Control Panel icons is useful because it reduces a bit of the clutter in the All Control Panel Items window. However, what if you want to set up a computer for a novice user, and you’d like that person to have access to just a few relatively harmless icons, such as Personalization and Getting Started |
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| Windows 7 : Easier Access to Control Panel |
| Control Panel is certainly a useful and important piece of the Windows 7 package. It’s even more useful if you can get to it easily. In this section, I show you a few methods for gaining quick access to individual icons and the entire folder. |
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| Windows 7 : Reviewing the Control Panel Icons |
| To help you familiarize yourself with what’s available in Control Panel, this section offers summary descriptions of the Control Panel icons found in a standard Windows 7 installation. |
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| Windows 7 : Touring the Control Panel Window |
| Control Panel is a folder that contains a large number of icons—there are nearly 60 icons in the Classic view (depending on your version of Windows 7) of a default Windows 7 setup, but depending on your system configuration, even more icons could be available |
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| Windows 7 : Reviewing Event Viewer Logs |
| Windows 7 constantly monitors your system for unusual or noteworthy occurrences. It might be a service that doesn’t start, the installation of a device, or an application error. Windows 7 tracks these occurrences, called events, in several different event logs |
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| Windows 7 : Checking for Updates and Security Patchess |
| Microsoft is constantly working to improve Windows 7 with bug fixes, security patches, new program versions, and device driver updates. All of these new and improved components are available online, so you should check for updates and patches often. |
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| Windows 7 : Backing Up Your Files |
| In theory, theory and practice are the same thing; in practice, they’re not. That old saw applies perfectly to data backups. In theory, backing up data is an important part of everyday computing life. |
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| Windows 7 : Preparing for Trouble |
| A big part of the ounce-of-prevention mode that I talked about at the top of the chapter is the unwavering belief that someday something will go wrong with your computer. |
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| Windows 7 : Defragmenting Your Hard Disk |
| Windows 7 comes with a utility called Disk Defragmenter that’s an essential tool for tuning your hard disk. Disk Defragmenter’s job is to rid your hard disk of file fragmentation. |
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| Windows 7 : Deleting Unnecessary Files |
| If you find that a hard disk partition is getting low on free space, you should delete any unneeded files and programs. Windows 7 comes with a Disk Cleanup utility that enables you to remove certain types of files quickly and easily |
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| Windows 7 : Checking Free Disk Space |
| Hard disks with capacities measured in the hundreds of gigabytes are commonplace even in low-end systems nowadays, so disk space is much less of a problem than it used to be. |
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| Windows 7 : Checking Your Hard Disk for Errors |
| Our hard disks store our programs and, most important, our precious data, so they have a special place in the computing firmament. They ought to be pampered and coddled to ensure a long and trouble-free existence, but that’s rarely the case, unfortunately. |
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| Windows Azure : Understanding Message Operations |
| A message is an atomic piece of data stored in a queue. Each message in Windows Azure queues can be up to 8 KB in size. There is no limit on the number of messages in a queue, or the combined size of the messages you can put in the store. |
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| Windows Azure : Understanding Queue Operations |
| Like the rest of the Windows Azure storage services, the Windows Azure queue service has a REST API. The API uses similar concepts and conventions as the other Windows Azure storage APIs , so a lot of this will be familiar to you. |
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| Windows Azure Queue Overview |
| Up to this point, the discussion has been geared toward convincing you that queues are the next best thing to sliced bread (and YouTube). Now, let’s look at what Windows Azure queues are, what they provide, and how to use them. |
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| Tuning Windows 7’s Performance : Optimizing the Hard Disk |
| Windows 7 uses the hard disk to fetch application data and documents as well as to store data in the page file temporarily. Therefore, optimizing your hard disk can greatly improve Windows 7’s overall performance, as described in the next few sections. |
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| Tuning Windows 7’s Performance : Optimizing Applications |
| Running applications is the reason we use Windows 7, so it’s a rare user who doesn’t want his applications to run as fast as possible. The next few sections offer some pointers for improving the performance of applications under Windows 7. |
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| Tuning Windows 7’s Performance : Monitoring Performance |
| Performance optimization is a bit of a black art in that every user has different needs, every configuration has different operating parameters, and every system can react in a unique and unpredictable way to performance tweaks. |
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| Windows Vista - File Encryption : Encryption File System |
| Windows Vista includes EFS, which allows a user to encrypt and decrypt files that are stored on an NTFS volume. When you use EFS, folders and files are still kept secure against those intruders who might gain unauthorized physical access to the device (for example, as by stealing a notebook computer or a removable drive). |
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| Windows 7 : Customizing the Taskbar for Easier Program and Document Launching |
| In Windows 7, the taskbar acts somewhat like a mini-application. The purpose of this “application” is to launch other programs, display a button for each running program, and to enable you to switch from one program to another. Like most applications these days, the taskbar also has its own toolbars that, in this case, enable you to launch programs and documents. |
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| Windows Azure Storage : REST API (part 1) |
| The REST API for the Queue service is available at the account, queue, and message levels. In this section, you learn about the Queue service REST API with specific examples. |
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